1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to data processing apparatuses, methods of registering electronic documents, and computer programs and, more particularly, to a data processing apparatus, a method of registering electronic documents, and a computer program that are suitable for registration of electronic documents.
2. Description of the Related Art
Registration of specified documents by specified methods in digital multifunction machines, such as multifunction printers (MFPs), or personal computer (PC) servers is demanded in routine business processes in offices and so on in recent years. In order to fulfill such a demand, workflow applications can be introduced to build specified business procedures as systems.
Systems that efficiently register documents in restricted processes without introducing the workflow applications are also proposed (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-288196). In the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-288196, when attribute data about a document is received in registration of the document in an electronic storage, the attribute data is combined with standard document cover data that is set in advance to print the cover of the document including the attribute data. Then, the body of the document (paper document) created by a user is read by a scanner along with the printed cover of the document, and the scanned document is registered in the electronic storage. A process similar to temporary registration of the document is performed when the attribute data about the document is combined with the standard document cover data and the cover of the document is printed in the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-288196.
In the case of the introduction of the workflow system, it may be necessary to separately introduce the workflow application. In addition, a user may need to have technical knowledge to define the workflow in detail. Accordingly, for example, it may be necessary to request a consultation with the sales agent of the application which can increase the cost of performing the desired operation. Furthermore, it may not be easy to customize the workflow if the user wants to modify part of the workflow or to change the display of a screen after defining the workflow.
In the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-288196, it is necessary to print the temporarily-registered document (the cover of the document) on a sheet of paper. Accordingly, it is troublesome to finally register the temporarily-registered document. In addition, since the temporarily-registered document is only printed on a sheet of paper, it is not possible for the user to visually understand which document is finally set and how the document is stored in an electronic document management system, thus possibly causing failure or mistake in registration. Furthermore, since the user cannot easily distinguish the temporarily-registered document from the finally-registered document, it is not possible for the user to intuitively determine whether all the documents are prepared or the registration operation is not delayed when the multiple documents are to be registered.